Lake County, Illinois | |
|---|---|
 Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan | |
 Flag  Seal  Logo | |
| Nickname: L.C. | |
 Location within the U.S. state ofIllinois | |
 Illinois's location within theU.S. | |
| Coordinates:42°26′N87°47′W / 42.43°N 87.78°W /42.43; -87.78 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Illinois |
| Founded | March 1, 1839 |
| Named after | Lake Michigan |
| Seat | Waukegan |
| Largest city | Waukegan |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,368 sq mi (3,540 km2) |
| • Land | 444 sq mi (1,150 km2) |
| • Water | 925 sq mi (2,400 km2) 67.6% |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 714,342 |
• Estimate (2024) | 718,604 [1] |
| • Density | 1,610/sq mi (621/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−6 (Central) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
| Congressional districts | 5th,9th,10th,11th |
| Website | www |
Lake County is acounty located in the northeastern corner of theU.S. state ofIllinois, along the shores ofLake Michigan. As of the2020 census, it has a population of 714,342,[2] making it thethird-most populous county in Illinois. Itscounty seat isWaukegan, thetenth-largest city in Illinois.[3] The county is primarily suburban, with some urban areas and some rural areas. Due to its location, immediately north ofCook County, Lake County is one of thecollar counties of theChicago metropolitan area. Its northern boundary is theWisconsin state line.
According to the2010 census, Lake County is the second wealthiest county in the state byper capita income, afterDuPage County. Additionally, Lake County ranks as the 27th wealthiest county in the nation. The county includes the affluentNorth Shore communities ofLake Forest,Lake Bluff, andHighland Park, and much of the county's wealth is concentrated in this area, as well as in communities borderingCook County to the south andMcHenry County to the west. The north and northwest areas of the county, though historically rural and exurban, have experienced rapid suburbanization in the past three decades, while the lakefront communities ofWaukegan,North Chicago, andZion are postindustrial areas that have majority-minority populations. The Hispanic population has seen significant increases in nearly all areas of the county and comprise 24% of the county's population in 2020.
The expansiveNaval Station Great Lakes is located in the city ofNorth Chicago. It is theUnited States Navy's Headquarters Command for training, and the Navy's only recruit training center. OneWetland of International Importance is primarily located in the county,Chiwaukee Prairie Illinois Beach Lake Plain, which encompassesIllinois Beach State Park and some of the lakeside lands of theLake County Forest Preserve District.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(April 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The county was created by theIllinois State Legislature in 1839. At that time, the county was mostly unsettled;Libertyville, then known as Independence Grove, was the first county seat. In 1841, however, the county's residents voted to move the county government to Little Fort, now Waukegan, where the commissioners had purchased a section of land from the state. Lake County's first courthouse was built on part of that land in 1844 and the remainder was sold to pay for the $4,000 construction cost.
The county's first courthouse was used solely for court sessions and the jail, but in 1853, commissioners constructed a building to accommodate county administration offices and house records. When fire damaged the courthouse on October 19, 1875, the county records were saved because they were in the adjacent building.
After the fire, proposals were made to move the county seat to Highland Park, Libertyville or another site in central Lake County. The county commissioners, however, decided to rebuild in Waukegan. The east half of the building was reconstructed at a cost of $45,000. In 1895, the first jail building was added to the government complex and a west addition was added to the courthouse in 1922. By 1938, county commissioners saw a need for additional space and approved the addition of a 5th Floor. This courthouse, however, was demolished in 1967 to make room for a new high-rise administration building, which was completed with the addition of the jail in 1969 and courts in 1970.
Shortly thereafter, the Lake County Board commissioned the construction of a multi-faceted justice facility and ground was broken in 1986 for the Robert H. Babcox Justice Center, named in memory of Sheriff Babcox, who served as Lake County Sheriff from 1982 to 1988. The justice center, which houses the county jail, work release program, sheriff's administration offices and three courtrooms, was finished in 1989 at a cost of $29.6 million.
Additional county government facilities have been built or expanded throughout Lake County, including the Coroner's Office, Health Department/Community Health Center facilities, Division of Transportation, Public Works and Winchester House. Lake County government services extend throughout the county's 470 square miles (1,200 km2).
The historic Half Day Inn, a tavern/restaurant, was constructed in 1843. This structure, once located at the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Rte. 45/Old Half Day Road, was one of the oldest structures in Lake County until it was demolished in 2007 to make way for retail space, condominiums, and a retention pond.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,368 square miles (3,540 km2), of which 444 square miles (1,150 km2) is land and 935 square miles (2,420 km2) (67.6%) is water.[4] It is the second-largest county in Illinois by total area and the only one that has more water area than land area. Most of the water is inLake Michigan.
BesidesLake Michigan, lakes in the county include:
Lake County's forest preserves and natural areas are administered by theLake County Forest Preserves district. These facilities include traditional nature preserves, such as the Ryerson Conservation Area, as well as golf courses and historic homes, such as theAdlai Stevenson historic home.[5] A long north–south string of the preserves in Lake County, including Half Day Woods, Old School Forest Preserve, Independence Grove, and Van Patten Woods, form the Des Plaines River Greenway, which contains the Des Plaines River Trail, a popular place for walking, running, and biking. Lake County is also home toIllinois Beach State Park, featuring over six miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, as well as dune areas, wetlands, prairie, and black oak savanna. Several local environmental groups operate in Lake County, such asConserve Lake County andCitizens for Conservation, working to improve habitat. Volunteer opportunities also exist with the Lake County Forest Preserve District.[6]
Interstate 41
Interstate 94
U.S. Route 12
U.S. Route 14
U.S. Route 41
U.S. Route 45
Illinois Route 21
Illinois Route 22
Illinois Route 43
Illinois Route 53
Illinois Route 59
Illinois Route 60
Illinois Route 83
Illinois Route 120
Illinois Route 131
Illinois Route 132
Illinois Route 134
Illinois Route 137
Illinois Route 173
Illinois Route 176Lake County'scounty road system currently covers 300 miles of road.[7] The county also employs two different numbering systems, a county route system and a county highway system. While both systems' can be seen on official road maps, only the County Route designations have been indicated withhighway markers ontraffic signals or dedicated poles.
The county route system in use today by Lake County was purportedly intended to be the dominant system for all of Illinois's counties and was proposed by theNational Association of Counties (NACo), however their system was not chosen and instead each county was given the freedom to number their own county routes as well as choose whether or not to produce and displayhighway markers. Currently, only Lake County,Boone County,McHenry County andCook County use NACo's proposed numbering system, and of the four only Lake and McHenry counties chose to fully display the county route designations on highway markers. Cook County began to roll out the production of highway markers near the beginning of 2009, but the seemingly arbitrary numbering system as well as the cost to produce the markers resulted in a lot of confusion and backlash, and ultimately only some of the markers were produced and mounted.[8]
For Lake County, all East–West-bound County Routes begin with an "A", while North—South-bound County Routes on the western half of the county begin with a "V", and those located on the eastern half begin with a "W".[citation needed]
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1840 | 2,634 | — | |
| 1850 | 14,226 | 440.1% | |
| 1860 | 18,257 | 28.3% | |
| 1870 | 21,014 | 15.1% | |
| 1880 | 21,296 | 1.3% | |
| 1890 | 24,235 | 13.8% | |
| 1900 | 34,504 | 42.4% | |
| 1910 | 55,058 | 59.6% | |
| 1920 | 74,285 | 34.9% | |
| 1930 | 104,387 | 40.5% | |
| 1940 | 121,094 | 16.0% | |
| 1950 | 179,097 | 47.9% | |
| 1960 | 293,656 | 64.0% | |
| 1970 | 382,638 | 30.3% | |
| 1980 | 440,372 | 15.1% | |
| 1990 | 516,418 | 17.3% | |
| 2000 | 644,356 | 24.8% | |
| 2010 | 703,462 | 9.2% | |
| 2020 | 714,342 | 1.5% | |
| 2024 (est.) | 718,604 | [9] | 0.6% |
| U.S. Decennial Census[10] 1790-1960[11] 1900-1990[12] 1990-2000[13] 2010-2020[2] | |||
| Race / Ethnicity(NH = Non-Hispanic) | Pop 1980[14] | Pop 1990[15] | Pop 2000[16] | Pop 2010[17] | Pop 2020[18] | % 1980 | % 1990 | % 2000 | % 2010 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White alone (NH) | 383,370 | 431,976 | 472,968 | 458,701 | 408,349 | 87.06% | 83.65% | 73.40% | 65.21% | 57.16% |
| Black or African American alone (NH) | 27,842 | 34,080 | 43,580 | 46,989 | 47,240 | 6.32% | 6.60% | 6.76% | 6.68% | 6.61% |
| Native American orAlaska Native alone (NH) | 860[19] | 1,241 | 1,048 | 1,058 | 909 | 0.20% | 0.24% | 0.16% | 0.15% | 0.13% |
| Asian alone (NH) | 5,898[20] | 12,038 | 24,866 | 43,954 | 58,901 | 1.34% | 2.33% | 3.86% | 6.25% | 8.25% |
| Native Hawaiian orPacific Islander alone (NH) | 122[21] | 225 | 224 | 228 | 312 | 0.03% | 0.04% | 0.03% | 0.03% | 0.04% |
| Other race alone (NH) | 1,216[22] | 348 | 1,085 | 1,547 | 3,264 | 0.28% | 0.07% | 0.17% | 0.22% | 0.46% |
| Mixed race or Multiracial (NH) | x[23] | x[24] | 7,869 | 10,998 | 23,405 | x | x | 1.22% | 1.56% | 3.28% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 21,064[25] | 36,735 | 92,716 | 139,987 | 171,962 | 4.78% | 7.11% | 14.39% | 19.90% | 24.07% |
| Total | 440,372 | 516,418 | 644,356 | 703,462 | 714,342 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% |
.svg)
As of the2010 Census, there were 703,462 people, 241,712 households, and 179,428 families residing in the county.[26] The population density was 1,585.6 inhabitants per square mile (612.2/km2). There were 260,310 housing units at an average density of 586.7 per square mile (226.5/km2).[4] The racial makeup of the county was 75.1% white, 7.0% black or African American, 6.3% Asian, 0.5% American Indian, 8.5% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 19.9% of the population.[26] In terms of ancestry, 20.5% wereGerman, 12.9% wereIrish, 9.4% werePolish, 6.9% wereItalian, 6.5% wereEnglish, and 4.0% wereAmerican.[27]
Of the 241,712 households, 40.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.6% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 25.8% were non-families, and 21.5% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.31. The median age was 36.7 years.[26]The median income for a household in the county was $78,948 and the median income for a family was $91,693. Males had a median income of $62,042 versus $44,200 for females. The per capita income for the county was $38,120. About 4.8% of families and 7.0% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 9.6% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.[28]
Racial Makeup of Lake County (2023)[29]
| Racial Makeup of Lake County excluding Hispanics from Racial Categories (2023)[29] NH=Non-Hispanic
| Racial Makeup of Hispanics in Lake County (2023)[29]
|
According to 2023 US Census BureauAmerican Community Survey one-year estimates (which is conducted annually for cities over 65,000 via sampling), the population of Lake County, Illinois was 60.2%White (55.6%Non-Hispanic White and 4.6%Hispanic White), 6.1% Black orAfrican American, 8.8%Asian, 0.9%Native American andAlaskan Native, 0.1%Pacific Islander, 10.9% Some Other Race, and 12.9% fromtwo or more races.[29]
The White population continued to remain the largest racial category and included 18.5% of Hispanics in Lake County who identify as White. A plurality of Hispanics identified as Some Other Race (41.2%) with others continuing to identify as Multiracial (34.8%) and smaller amounts identifying as Black (0.6%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (3.8%), Asian (1.2%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.0%).[29] By ethnicity, 25.1% of the total population wasHispanic-Latino (of any race) and 74.9% is Non-Hispanic (of any race). If treated as a separate category, Hispanics are the largest minority group in Lake County, Illinois[29] surpassing the Black population from the 1990 Census onward. The majority of Hispanic/ Latino residents in Lake County, Illinois are of Mexican descent (18.0% of the county population in 2021).[30] There are also communities of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, and South American ancestry in the county.
The following sports teams play in Lake County:
.jpg)
The county is divided into eighteentownships.
| Lake County Board | ||
|---|---|---|
| District | Board Member | Party |
| 1 | Linda Pedersen | Republican |
| 2 | Adam Schlick | Republican |
| 3 | Ann B. Maine | Republican |
| 4 | Gina Roberts | Democratic |
| 5 | J. Kevin Hunter | Republican |
| 6 | John Wasik | Democratic |
| 7 | Carissa Casbon | Democratic |
| 8 | Diane Hewitt | Democratic |
| 9 | Mary Ross Cunningham | Democratic |
| 10 | Jessica Vealitzek | Democratic |
| 11 | Paul Frank | Democratic |
| 12 | Paras Parekh | Democratic |
| 13 | Sandy Hart, Board Chair | Democratic |
| 14 | Angelo D. Kyle | Democratic |
| 15 | Jennifer Clark | Democratic |
| 16 | Esiah Campos | Democratic |
| 17 | Michael Danforth | Republican |
| 18 | Sara Knizhnik | Democratic |
| 19 | Marah Altenberg | Democratic |
County Officials: The county has several other elected offices, includingsheriff,coroner, clerk,treasurer, State's attorney, regional superintendent, and circuitcourt clerk. Each of these elected officers serves a term of four years and oversees a different part of county government.
| Office | Officeholder | Party |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit Court Clerk | Erin Cartwright Weinstein | Democratic |
| Coroner | Jennifer Banek | Democratic |
| County Clerk | Anthony Vega | Democratic |
| Regional Superintendent of Schools | Michael L Karner | Democratic |
| Sheriff | John Idleburg | Democratic |
| State's Attorney | Eric Rinehart | Democratic |
| Treasurer | Holly Kim | Democratic |
As a historicYankee settlement, Lake County was initially a stronghold of theFree Soil Party. Inthe 1848 presidential election, it was Free Soil nominee and former presidentMartin van Buren’s strongest county, giving him over 58 percent of the vote.
Consequently, Lake County would turn rock-solid Republican for most of the next century and a half. After narrowly supporting DemocratFranklin Pierce in1852, it voted Republican at all but one presidential election from 1856 to 1960. This tradition was only broken in1912, when the GOP was mortally divided and Lake County voted forProgressive Party nominee and former presidentTheodore Roosevelt over conservative incumbentWilliam Howard Taft.
In1964 the Republican Party nominatedBarry Goldwater, whose hostility to the Yankee establishment and strongly conservative platform were sufficient to leave many traditional Republicans to stay home or even to vote for Lyndon Johnson, who narrowly became the first Democrat to win an absolute majority in the county sinceJames K. Polk in 1844, and the first to win it at all since Pierce in 1852. Between 1968 and 1988, however, Lake County became powerfully Republican once more, with no Democrat cracking forty percent of the vote.
However, as in the other collar counties, the Republican edge narrowed considerably in the 1990s, andBill Clinton actually won it with a 166-vote plurality in 1996–the only time that Clinton won any of the collar counties besidesWill County during his two campaigns for president. After narrowly voting forGeorge W. Bush twice, in 2008 it swung over dramatically to support DemocratBarack Obama, who carried it by almost 20 points. Obama won it but by a slimmer margin in 2012.Hillary Clinton won it handily in 2016, tallying her second-best margin in the state. At 36%,Donald Trump's performance in the county was the worst of any Republican presidential nominee since 1912. In 2020,Joe Biden won 61% of the vote, the highest percentage of the vote for any candidate since 1988 and the highest ever attained by a Democrat.
Lake County has the highest payout for wrongful conviction in the United States.Juan Rivera was awarded $20 million, the largest wrongful conviction settlement in United States history, including $2 million from John E. Reid & Associates, who were known for theReid technique of questioning suspects. This technique has been widely criticized for its history of eliciting confessions that were later determined to be false. Rivera was questioned twice at Reid headquarters by an employee of the company during his interrogation, which lasted for several days. Another payout was made to Jerry Hobbs.Kathleen Zellner settled Jerry Hobbs's civil rights case for $7.75 million. Hobbs was incarcerated for 66 months. This was the largest pre-trial detainee settlement in the United States.[32]
| Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party(ies) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 1892 | 2,932 | 57.17% | 1,964 | 38.29% | 233 | 4.54% |
| 1896 | 5,027 | 72.47% | 1,777 | 25.62% | 133 | 1.92% |
| 1900 | 5,136 | 67.69% | 2,235 | 29.45% | 217 | 2.86% |
| 1904 | 6,635 | 77.11% | 1,592 | 18.50% | 378 | 4.39% |
| 1908 | 6,392 | 68.15% | 2,264 | 24.14% | 723 | 7.71% |
| 1912 | 2,183 | 21.59% | 2,436 | 24.09% | 5,494 | 54.33% |
| 1916 | 12,905 | 66.95% | 5,447 | 28.26% | 924 | 4.79% |
| 1920 | 15,712 | 82.28% | 2,321 | 12.15% | 1,063 | 5.57% |
| 1924 | 18,229 | 75.48% | 2,008 | 8.31% | 3,913 | 16.20% |
| 1928 | 26,814 | 67.73% | 12,252 | 30.95% | 521 | 1.32% |
| 1932 | 23,994 | 50.92% | 21,139 | 44.86% | 1,989 | 4.22% |
| 1936 | 27,548 | 51.32% | 24,524 | 45.69% | 1,603 | 2.99% |
| 1940 | 38,242 | 60.26% | 24,965 | 39.34% | 254 | 0.40% |
| 1944 | 35,674 | 58.19% | 25,453 | 41.52% | 183 | 0.30% |
| 1948 | 39,456 | 63.26% | 22,192 | 35.58% | 720 | 1.15% |
| 1952 | 54,929 | 62.83% | 32,353 | 37.01% | 145 | 0.17% |
| 1956 | 66,781 | 67.33% | 32,279 | 32.54% | 129 | 0.13% |
| 1960 | 67,809 | 59.02% | 46,941 | 40.85% | 149 | 0.13% |
| 1964 | 58,840 | 48.36% | 62,785 | 51.60% | 42 | 0.03% |
| 1968 | 68,999 | 56.60% | 43,409 | 35.61% | 9,495 | 7.79% |
| 1972 | 92,052 | 65.84% | 47,416 | 33.91% | 344 | 0.25% |
| 1976 | 92,231 | 60.32% | 57,741 | 37.77% | 2,922 | 1.91% |
| 1980 | 96,350 | 58.45% | 48,287 | 29.29% | 20,216 | 12.26% |
| 1984 | 118,401 | 68.35% | 53,947 | 31.14% | 876 | 0.51% |
| 1988 | 114,115 | 63.53% | 64,327 | 35.81% | 1,191 | 0.66% |
| 1992 | 99,000 | 44.20% | 81,693 | 36.47% | 43,294 | 19.33% |
| 1996 | 93,149 | 45.49% | 93,315 | 45.57% | 18,300 | 8.94% |
| 2000 | 120,988 | 49.96% | 115,058 | 47.51% | 6,118 | 2.53% |
| 2004 | 139,081 | 50.52% | 134,352 | 48.80% | 1,862 | 0.68% |
| 2008 | 118,545 | 39.53% | 177,242 | 59.10% | 4,113 | 1.37% |
| 2012 | 129,764 | 45.14% | 153,757 | 53.48% | 3,972 | 1.38% |
| 2016 | 109,767 | 36.16% | 171,095 | 56.37% | 22,658 | 7.47% |
| 2020 | 123,594 | 36.82% | 204,032 | 60.78% | 8,049 | 2.40% |
| 2024 | 120,402 | 38.40% | 184,642 | 58.89% | 8,514 | 2.72% |
Lake County is covered by the Chicago and Milwaukeemedia market and the county relies on Chicago and Milwaukee television stations, radio stations, and newspapers for the source of its news and information.
The county has multiple radio stations, including 102.3 FM XLC and 98.3 FM WRLR.
TheLake County News-Sun, owned byTribune Publishing, is the county's main print newspaper. It is printed and published in Gurnee.[34]
Lake and McHenry County Scanner, launched in 2012 by Sam Borcia,[35] is the county's biggest digital newspaper which covers Lake County as well as nearbyMcHenry County.[36] The publication's work has been quoted in top news outlets such as Fox News[37] and Yahoo! News.[38]
The county is also covered by theChicago Sun-Times andThe Daily Herald.
The following is a list of school districts with any territory in Lake County, no matter how slight, even if the school districts' administrative headquarters and/or schools are outside of the county:[39]
K-12:
Secondary:
Elementary:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Places adjacent to Lake County, Illinois | |
|---|---|
Municipalities and communities ofLake County, Illinois,United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cities |  | |
| Villages |
| |
| Townships | ||
| CDPs | ||
| Other unincorporated communities | ||
| Former settlements | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
